Sanskrit as Link Language and Devanagiri as Common Script continues...

Since Nehru understood no Sanskrit at all, he debunked the Sanskritization of the Hindi vocabulary and the Devanagiri script.

Between Raghuvira on one extreme and Nehru’s sabotage on the other, Hindi became not only discredited in the eyes of the south but another imagined symbol of imposition of the North on the South. Naturally, the South revolted. Southerners also feared losing jobs due to the natural disadvantage of not knowing Hindi from childhood, in competition with those whose mother-tongue was Hindi. Thus, the nation had to witness the language riots of 1965 that threatened national unity. The leadership at the centre which had by then passed into Lal Bahadur Shastri’s hands, had naturally to yield, to keep national unity, but with that the prospects of Hindi suffered a tremendous reverse.

Hindi, however, is still practically speaking the best link language today. But it is not the best language as an educational medium and for learned discourse. It can never be accepted as the national language. In the centuries to come, it is Sanskrit that will be the most suitable language for us. For fostering, nurturing, and cementing the Hindustani unity and identity. There are three reasons for this.

First, the rich literature in Sanskrit is the fount of our cultural heritage. Hindu religious ceremonies are impossible without the recitation of mantras in Sanskrit. It is already one of our 18 “national languages” in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Sanskrit is the mother tongue of about 50,000 people according to the 1991 census results (Census of 2001 on language are not published yet). In 1991, more than 90 per cent of the 49,733 who returned Sanskrit as their mother tongue, were from Uttar Pradesh. Those others whose mother tongue was Sanskrit were in Bihar (802 persons), Karnataka (695), Madhya Pradesh (650), Delhi (587), Haryana (575), Rajasthan (433), Maharashtra (277), Andhra Pradesh (199), Tamil Nadu (169) and Himachal Pradesh (167).

to be continued....

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication )